Frost greets final day of World Ag Expo

Yes, it's still winter and Mother Nature made sure to remind Central Valley growers and attendees of the World Ag Expo of that fact overnight, as frost descended on the vast Central Valley.

Temperatures in the mid to upper 20s have been reported around the San Joaquin Valley overnight, threatening some crops that had already started sprouting and blooming after unseasonably warm weather over the past week.

Now the temperatures have dropped to unseasonably cool temperatures.

Some areas of the valley could see frost again tonight.

But that's not keeping people from the World Ag Expo for its final day today. They have just remembered to bring jackets today.

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Capital Press

Day 2 in Tulare winding down

The second day of the 2006 World Ag Expo is almost at an end. The crowds on the grounds are thinning and the long lines of traffic away from the International Agri-Center are growing on a day highlighted by the visit of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The international action-movie star was perhaps a fitting guest on a day that highlighted seminars on international trade.

The Wednesday session of the 2006 Expo still enjoyed sunny weather, but cooler, more seasonal temperatures have returned to Tulare, after a week of decidedly spring-like weather. Even many of the fruit and nut trees throughout the valley give the illusion of spring with their buds bursting into bloom.

But chillier, more blustery weather has returned, with temperatures in the 50s. Weather forecasters are calling for an even cooler day for Thursday's final day of the Expo.

By walking around the grounds today it was easy to get the impression that people came to buy things today. On Tuesday it was possible to see many people carrying a bag or two of booty from the giveaways being offered at the various exhibitors’ booths. But today there were many more people carrying more and larger bags, tool boxes, tree spikes and assortment of other farm or garden goods.

Sweatshirts at the souvenir booths were also popular on this chilly day.

But the governor's visit undoubtedly caused the most excitement of the day. Schwarzenegger was also responsible for the faux paux of the day.

During remarks to the large crowd gathered around the Reynolds International booth where Schwarzenegger spoke, the governor was introducing some of the other dignitaries who were part of the formal entourage.

He mistakenly referred to World Ag Expo Chairman Erin Ferguson as "she" during his remarks.

Well, that's it from Tulare today. We'll check in again tomorrow for the final day of the World Ag Expo.

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World Ag Expo
Capital Press

First day of Tulare comes to a close

TULARE, Calif. -- The first day of the World Ag Expo has come to a close, with buzz building about Wednesday's scheduled visit from California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But make no mistake, at Tulare the expo itself is the star.

I'm not sure how how anyone can possibly see it all and do it all in only three days. And if there is any piece of farm equipment, technology or type of service not on display at the farm show, you'd be hard-pressed to figure you what it would be. You can test drive precision ag equipped tractors that will keep your rows straight or software specifically for agribusiness.

But no trip to this part of the San Joaquin Valley would be complete without getting a taste of the region and munching on a tri-tip sandwich.

Yes, the area around Tulare is known for lots of ag commodities, including dairy milk, olives, oranges and other citrus groves, raisin grapes and nut trees, but no large gathering featuring food is complete without tri-tip.

So much for my diet, but there are also plenty of opportunities to get exercise trying to cover the World Ag Expo grounds.

I'm ready for a nap.

Agriculture
World Ag Expo
Capital Press

Go to Tulare, see the world

If I ever had any doubt whether the World Ag Expo in Tulare, Calif., is a global event, my mom would have put that to rest this week.

I got an e-mail message from my mother yesterday, saying I should look for her friend Max next week when I'm in Tulare for the Expo, which runs Feb. 14-16.

Max is a grower from Australia who is visiting the United States, and one of his stops will be the World Ag Expo.

He certainly won't be alone, as thousands of farmers, ranchers and agribusiness professionals will descend on the small San Joaquin Valley town for the mammoth farm show.

I'm thinking the odds I'll bump into Max are pretty slim.

But if you will be in Tulare next week, I can give you a few pointers on how you can find one or more of the 10 members of the Capital Press staff who will be there.

A good place to look would be at one of the two Capital Press booth located in the exhibit pavilions at the International Agri-Center grounds.

Editor and Publisher Elaine Shein will be leading the Capital Press delegation attending the Expo.

And if you can’t make it to the show, you can turn to the Capital Press and CapitalPress.com for coverage of some of the highlights of the 2006 Expo. Reporters Ali Bay and Chip Power will be providing details on the show in the Feb. 17 and Feb. 24 issues of Capital Press. And starting Tuesday, Bay, Power and I will post live updates and stories here on the Capital Press website. Our goal is to provide at least two updates each day, which will be quite a chore, because the show is so big and there is so much going on, it will be tough to break away to sit in front of a laptop to write for fear that we will miss something important or not see all there is to see in just three short days.

But we do want to share as much as we can of what we see and hear at the Expo with you, and this blog and the home page of our website will be where you can check in on some of the happenings in Tulare.

Personally, I’m looking forward to the show. It’s been a few years since I’ve been to the Tulare farm show. In fact the last time I was there, back in 1999 when I was editor of a daily newspaper in neighboring Porterville, the show had a different name. Back then the show was known as the California Farm Equipment Show and International Exposition.

Since then, the name got smaller, but the show has continued to grow.

So if we don’t see you in Tulare, you can see some of Tulare right here at CapitalPress.com.

And if you see Max, tell him to look for me in a green Capital Press cap.

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• Early sell-out, new exhibits for 2006 Ag Expo
• Heading to the Expo

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Capital Press

What's missing from CapitalPress.com?

What do you look for in a web site? In particular, what do you look for on the Capital Press web site? And most importantly, are you finding it?

Tens of thousands of people come to the Capital Press web site every month at least once, and many come back more than once. We can tell what some of the people are looking at from the pages that get the most views. But what I’m curious about is what isn’t here that should be. Or maybe some things people are looking for are here, but they are just too hard to find.

CapitalPress.com has all of the same farm and ranch stories and advertisements that can be found in our print additions. Some of that material can only be accessed by subscribers, while other information is free to anyone who stops by. But CapitalPress.com (or CapitalPress.info depending on how you want to look at it) is really a distinctive thing from our print editions.

People use computers and web sites differently than a printed newspaper gets used. And they are built differently too.

One advantage we have at CapitalPress.com, is that we can literally publish 24-hours a day, 7-days a week here if we want to do so. Our printed newspaper only comes out once a week. One deadline per week. One chance to get something in print. And if that deadline is missed, it takes 7 more days before we get a chance to print it again.

In some cases, waiting 7 days is just too long. The agricultural world and the rural lifestyle may be intertwined with the growing seasons, and may have a tradition of a slower pace to life, but today most, if not all, farmers and ranchers and those they do business with are connected to the world with a vast array of technology. Farmers use satellites to see what weather is coming their way or to guide their tractors through their fields. They also use other blessed/cursed modern devices like cell phones, computers, fax machines, TVs, radios, etc., that make the spread of communication and information virtually instantaneous with the next farm over or people on the other side of the globe.

At CapitalPress.com we are certainly making a concerted effort to ensure that we are keeping people up to date with major developments affecting West Coast agriculture throughout the week, not just once a week. But we can certainly do better. The question is: Where should our time and energy be spent to provide you with a useful website?

So if you have some ideas for things you would like to see on this Web site, please let us know. We are constantly evaluating what we do and where we want to go. If we know what would make this site more useful and engaging for you, we have a much greater chance of being able to provide it for you. If you don’t tell us what you want and like, we are left to guess or rely on our own predilections. I may want Southern California concert information and Oregon State Beavers scores on the home page. But this site isn’t about me or for me. It’s for you. It’s for people who farm and ranch or want information about agriculture in Idaho, Oregon, Washington and California.

So, write to me at gwest[at]capitalpress[dot]com and tell us what you like and what you would like to see that you don’t know. And visit us at www.capitalpress.com to see how we are doing at implementing your suggestions.

Agriculture
Capital Press
Farm and ranch news

Do farmers blog?

Do farmers and ranchers blog?

Off and on over the last several months I’ve searched for blogs that are primarily about agriculture. So far I haven’t had much success.

Sure I can find words like “agriculture” or “ranching” or “farming” in posts on some blogs out there, but to date I’ve been unsuccessful in compiling a list of agriculture blogs.

I have a theory about that. Farmers and ranchers probably don’t have a lot of time for such pursuits. Or if they do, the periods when they have time they may not have access to the Internet.

However, there seem to be blogs about virtually every other topic under the sun, so I’m guessing that somewhere in this big wide blogosphere there are a few people in the ag industry who take time to share their observations on what they know best.

So, I’m doing to turn to you for help. If you are here, you obviously have two key ingredients in this quest. 1) You have an interest in agriculture; and 2) you have Internet access.

So, if you stumble onto any blogs about agriculture, or you maintain one yourself, I’d love to hear about it. Leave a comment on this page or drop be a line via e-mail. I’ll be happy to share the sites readers share with me with all of you.

And together we can explore the world of what I’m choosing to call, “blogriculture.”

So send your ag-blog discoveries to via e-mail, and we’ll see what’s out there together.

Agriculture